About Playing the Violin

On the blog today, I thought I would share some one-liners (mainly about violinists) sent to me by my friend, Cliff Benham

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"When it starts getting tough, make faces." Itzhak Perlman


Anne-Sophie Mutter's disparaging remark...During a rehearsal of the Brahms violin concerto with the Boston Symphony, directed towards the violin section: "You sound like dogs."


"Pay no attention to what the critics say; no statue has ever been putup to a critic." Jean Sibelius


There are more bad musicians than there is bad music." Isaac Stern


Bach: "It's easy to play any musical instrument -- All you have to do is touch the right key at the right time and the instrument will playitself"


Jack Benny: "I don't deserve this award, but I have arthritis and I don't deserve that either."


After he played a benefit concert at Carnegie Hall the NY Times music critic wrote, "Last night in Carnegie Hall, Jack Benny played Beethoven. Beethoven lost.


"Ruggiero Ricci: "An expert is someone who does everything else worse."


Dr. Albert Schweitzer (musician/explorer / physician/ missionary, etc.):"There are two refuges from the miseries of life--music and cats."


And how can we leave this list without that great violinist, HennyYoungman: "I've got all the money I'll ever need, if I die by four o'clock."


From a photo of a t-shirt worn by Zukerman: "I play with vibrato and do slides in Baroque Music. Deal with it."


Ricci, on the subject of playing the way he likes, rather than by some arbritary rules: "Now, I will play the way I like. Better to be a prostitute than a nun."


Heifetz: " If I don't practice for one day, I'll know it. If I don'tpractice for two days, the critics will know it. If I don't practice for three days, the whole public will know it."


Heifetz when asked about how he never messes up with intonation "I do not always play in tune, I just fix it quicker than anyone else."


"I occasionally play works by contemporary composers for two reasons.First to discourage the composer from writing any more and secondly to remind myself how much I appreciate Beethoven." -Heifetz


"Wagner was a musician who wrote music that is much better than it sounds." - Mark Twain


"That reminds me, I'm playing a concert tonight." -Fritz Kreisler, afterseeing a row of fish at a market...


Fritz Reiner: "It's not true that I hate musicians. I just hate BAAAAAAD musicians."


"You may be ready for Beethoven, but Beethoven is not ready for you!" ~Heifetz as guest soloist with a less-than-steller orchestra.


Brahms (to Eugene Ysaye after hearing Ysaye play the Brahms Concerto):"So, it can be played that way, too."


Henry Meyer (LaSalle String Quartet):"You paid for the whole bow, you will use the whole bow."


I think I prefer the Heifetz method of producing a twelve inch bow and offering it to the student because the current one is far too long...


"I'm one of the boys, no better than the last second violinist. I'm just the lucky one to be standing in the center, telling them how to play."- Eugene Ormandy


Albert Einstein, after playing the first movement of Schubert's String Quintet, in America: "Kid, ist das nicht wunderbar?"